Chapter 11: Jax Finds the Backdoor to a Dying Republic

The Seam Station breathed differently after Varenthal.

Jax noticed it the moment they came through the east service passage and the transit-gate deposited them back into the station's particular nowhere — a change in the oscillation frequency, something in the range below hearing that he registered as a shift in his back teeth rather than his ears. The floor's cycling had slowed. Whatever Varenthal had done to the Cornerstone's anchor, the station knew it.

He set up his equipment before he sat down, because sitting down first was how you let a problem become your environment rather than your object.